Remington Noiseless 8

The Noiseless 8 (1932-41) is one of the more unusual-looking
Remington portables from
America's Deco age. Its faceted design makes it stand out from the pack,
as does its size. The No. 8 is not very heavy, and it
comes in a carrying case -- but it is one of the largest portables ever
made. The irony is that the original, three-bank
Noiseless Portable of 1921
was a tiny machine. After Remington bought the Noiseless company,
they developed a four-bank Remington Noiseless Portable (1931),
followed the same year by the slightly larger Remington Noiseless No. 7.
But the No. 8 was a quantum leap: even though its mechanism is
identical to that of the No. 7, it is dramatically beefier.
The No. 8's wide carriage accepts paper 11.25" wide. Even the Remington
name on the paper table is in relief, emphasizing the sturdiness of
this machine.

Remington Noiseless No. 7 and No. 8

The No. 8 is somewhere between a standard portable and an office machine.
As a 1936 Remington brochure puts it, it is "an office model so
compact that it may be moved about as desired with no effort.
Yet it provides all the operating features for regular correspondence
typing. It is the machine for those who appreciate the inestimable
advantages of the quiet office and whose budget has not permitted
the previous high cost of noiseless performance. Now it costs less than noise."
(But the No. 8 was not exactly cheap: it originally sold for $105.)

An advertisement from November 1932 (quoted below)
claims that the No. 8 can switch, with the "touch of a button,"
from noisy to noiseless operation. But I can't find any such button on
my own No. 8, pictured above (E32800, January 1937). It may be that this
feature was available only on the first 5,000 machines or so, until Remington
introduced the No. 9 in February 1933.
The No. 9 is a peculiar machine that looks just
like the No. 8, but is not noiseless. This all invites the question: why would
anyone prefer a noisy typewriter, anyway? It's likely that some people found
quiet typing disconcerting: they expected a typewriter to make a racket.
The No. 9 was presumably developed for this niche market: people
who liked the looks of the No. 8, but not its relative silence.
(Ernst Martin comments in 1949,
"A certain degree of noise in writing is required for confidence.
Without such noise, the writer would not know whether the type was actually
printing or not, so he would lose control.")

Some Remington portables were made by the hundreds of
thousands, but this model and its noisy twin are relatively unusual.
27,499 No. 8's were made between October 1932 and May 1941,
with serial numbers from E11100 to E38598.
6,839 No. 9's were made between February 1933 and January 1941,
with serial numbers from F10000 to F16838. Almost all specimens
of both models were made before 1938.
A touch regulator (affecting the force of the blows of the
typebars) was added to both models only in the spring of 1938,
so if your machine has a touch regulator it is quite unusual
(there were 854 such No. 8's, and only 126 such No. 9's).
A name variant for the No. 8, "Smith Premier No. 8," is also
a desirable rarity.

We close with an illustration and text from a charming full-page ad that
appeared in Fortune magazine in November, 1932.
The great Art Deco illustration is a cross between a cat, the Noiseless No. 8,
and the Maltese Falcon!

A NEW NOISELESS
"SILENT AS THE PURR OF A KITTEN"

You can turn off the Noise

Noiseless typewriters are not new ... they are used by private secretaries
of over 100,000 important executives ... but this Remington is a
New Noiseless ... more compact, lighter, modern in design. It has a faster
carriage return and greater visibility. It is literally two typewriters in one,
instantly convertible from noisy to Noiseless operation without affecting
its conventional touch.

These remarkable new features with the sturdy construction
and reasonable price, comparable with the cost of ordinary typewriters,
combine to make it a practical, all-purpose business machine.

This new Remington Noiseless makes it possible to turn off,
by the mere touch of a button, the stacatto, nerve-wracking clatter
of typewriting ... to subdue it to a murmur, no more diverting than
a kitten's contented purr. It banishes the office's most dreaded
noise, that hammer-like P-O-U-N-D-I-N-G that stifles ideas,
interrupts concentration and puts the brakes on profitable efficiency.
You will find this New Remington Noiseless the most efficient
typewriter you've ever had in your executive or general offices.
Let us send one to you on trial. Telephone or write to our
nearest branch office or headquarters in Buffalo.